Off-Script with Gary Sinise

You know you’ve been accepted into the fire service culture when the crew starts busting your chops. It’s a sure sign you are in – and Gary Sinise is definitely in.

Take Sinise’s visit to FDNY’s Ladder 132 in Brooklyn, where they let him do a ride-along in full turnout gear. That day, they did an elevator rescue and included Sinise. While he might not have known what tool he was handed, he quickly followed their instructions.

“They said, ‘Go out there and hold it, and just look like you’re, you know, you’re intense and you wanna do something,'" Sinise says. "So all these guys are looking at me with this piece of equipment … they were getting a big kick out of it.”

Yeah, he was in. And not just because he’s a celebrity.

Not only is Sinise an accomplished and renowned actor, writer and director, he’s also a big part of the firefighting community. In 2011, he launched the Gary Sinise Foundation that so far has raised more than $400 million to help firefighters, first responders and military families.

A lot of successful celebrities use their money to further pet causes. Sinise’s cause just happens to be our cause.

A chance meeting on a C-130 flying to Baghdad from Kuwait sparked Sinise’s first visit to FDNY. On that flight, Sinise met the now-late John Vigiano, Sr., who had served with the FDNY in Brooklyn for 36 years, retiring as a captain. He had invited Sinise to the firehouse — Ladder 132, which lost six firefighters on 9/11.

Vigiano had been wearing a button. Sinise asked him about it. The button bore photos of Vigiano’s sons, Joseph Vigiano, a NYPD detective, and John Vigiano Jr., a firefighter. They both died in the line of duty on 9/11.

“I went to that firehouse and learned quite a lot about what it was like to be there at Ground Zero, digging through the rubble,” Sinise recalls. “But then they also dressed me up in the fire gear and threw me on the truck when a call came in.”

It was the elevator shaft call where Sinise was the butt of their joke.

That bond and unique sense of humor helps firefighters cope with the trauma they witness, Sinise agrees. “The camaraderie is undeniable,” he says. “It’s like the World Series team.… The big game bonds them forever, and these guys are sometimes doing that on a daily basis.”

Sinise has also observed the heavy toll that service takes on soldiers, first responders, and their families.

He highlights in particular the challenges many Afghanistan veterans face, including wounds that are both physical and mental.

“We have to lift them up wherever we can, try to be proactive, so that we get in the way of them doing the wrong thing, making the wrong decision,” Sinise says. “We don’t want them to feel like none of it was worth it, and that they can’t deal with the stresses of life after their service life. We want them to know that there’s life after service.”

And that life can be incredibly fulfilling, often through continued acts of giving back to communities. “Service is a great healer,” says Sinise. And he should know, because he’s been doing it for around 40 years.

“I started supporting Vietnam veterans in the Chicago area back in the ’80s. I played the Vietnam veteran in the ’90s. That started me supporting our wounded, because Lt. Dan was a wounded soldier, and I connected with the Disabled American Veterans and started supporting them,” says Sinise.

Lt. Dan Taylor, if you recall, is the iconic character Sinise portrayed in the movie Forrest Gump.

“But after September 11, there was a greater call to action, to really dig in. My heart was broken after that day.

“It remained broken for some time. And I just needed to do something personally to help heal that broken heart.”

Sinise found that by serving others he was helping to heal his own pain, which inspired him to want to serve some more.

His passion for it is palpable, even after a more recent heartbreak.

Sinise stepped away from acting in 2019 to focus on health challenges within his family. Among them, his wife, Moira, had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and his son, McCanna (“Mac”) had been diagnosed with a rare cancer called chordoma. Moira is now cancer-free, but Mac died in January 2024. He was 33.

“That was a tough, tough deal,” Sinise says. “It doesn’t mean I won’t get back to acting, but, we’ll see.”

Sinise says he began volunteering after 9/11, “raising my hand to do this and that, and go on USO tours and help the firefighters in New York City and other non-profits raise money and awareness for their missions.”

Sinise started to encourage others to volunteer and to get involved.

“When you volunteer, if your heart’s broken over a loss in your family or whatever it might be, there is certainly a helpful healing quality in reaching out to somebody who’s suffering and struggling as well, and trying to help them through,” Sinise says. “You start to forget about your own issues when you start to see somebody who’s broken standing up again and smiling. It lifts you up and helps you through. And I found that over and over and over again to the point where I felt like, well, this is something that’s a big part of my life. It’s gonna be a big part of my life. And that’s when I decided to start my own foundation.”

With many professional accolades for his work in TV and film, Sinise has also been recognized for his humanitarian and charity work. He has garnered, among others, titles such as honorary battalion chief of the FDNY, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, the Distinguished Patriot Award, and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Patriot Award.

Now, Sinise serves as chairman of that organization, the Gary Sinise Foundation. Today, it creates and supports programs designed to educate, entertain, inspire, strengthen and build communities.

The foundation’s mission statement is broad on purpose. “I’ve been flexible so we could adapt to the changing needs as we see them,” Sinise explains.

Considering Sinise’s family background, he had been destined for this work. His grandfather, Daniel Sinise, served as an ambulance driver during World War I. Two of his uncles, Jack and Jerry, served in World War II (Jack in the Army Air Corps and Jerry in the Navy), and his father, Robert Sinise, served in the Navy during the Korean War. His nephew is a police officer. This generational link is something he’s noticed in individuals who serve their countries and communities.

“They’re all called to serve in some way,” Sinise says. “Quite often, there’s a family history... It kind of runs in a family.”

Most of the people Sinise has met over the years have inspired and motivated him with their stories and service. He has supported the FDNY through numerous efforts, including raising funds to build The Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance, in honor of the 416 first responders and one fire department chaplain who lost their lives on 9/11.

In 2004, Sinise started the Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band, a cover band that has played more than 500 shows around the world and raised money for veterans living with disabilities. The group has performed for active-duty soldiers at military bases, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Gary Sinise Foundation’s support programs reflect the impact of service on first responders.

“We have a pretty serious mental wellness issue,” Sinise says. “Suicide has become an all too-familiar alternative to a lot of people, and that’s something we’re trying to be proactive in combating all the time. So we’re constantly reaching out wherever we can.”

The Gary Sinise Foundation also provides and supports several mental wellness programs and organizations, Sinise says, and notes the integral role of non-profits.

“These programs are critically important,” he says. “If the non-profits were not there to back up fire departments all over the country, police departments, military, and all that, we’d have an absolute catastrophe because the non-profits are playing a vital role in mental wellness issues and providing healing. That’s very, very important."

Emergency disaster relief is another area the Gary Sinise Foundation supports, from providing assistance after hurricanes of previous years to the more recent wildfires in California.

“You got all these first responders that are running around trying to help people, and their own houses are getting wiped out,” Sinise says.

“So we’re putting our hands wherever we can. I see that being part of our growth over the next few years.”

“We quite often forget about the daily life of a firefighter,” says Sinise. “They can be very idle. There’s a lot of times they’re just waiting, sitting there waiting for something bad to happen or something that needs them. And the bell rings and the sirens go off, and they jump into action, and you never know what’s going to happen.”

Sinise shares another example of the humor and camaraderie among firefighters that helps them cope with that uncertainty. Meet “Flat Gary.”

“Flat Gary” is a life-size cut-out photo of Sinise that circulates among New York City firehouses.

“They take (Flat Gary) all over the department all the time, around New York City and take pictures with all these different people,” says Sinise. “They’re constantly sending me pictures. Flat Gary visited this firehouse over here. Flat Gary was over there. Flat Gary was on the boat today. He went out on the Hudson. He seems to pop up everywhere. They take very good care of Flat Gary when they take him on an airplane somewhere. They’re constantly goofing off and having a good time, and I think that helps them through.”

And let’s not forget, service is a great healer. It’s the call to action at the Gary Sinise Foundation. “The staff is always finding ways to go above and beyond and do a little more. They’re very committed. And so a lot of ideas come rolling down the chute, you know, and it takes funding obviously to expand into those other areas. But we have a flexible mission, as I said, so we can go here and we can go there.”

We all know humor helps us cope with the tough times. And we know that serves as a signal that we all belong to the same fire service family, the tribe. Being part of the tribe means doing the work to support its members and strengthen its bonds. And to Sinise, that’s no joking matter.